With the ever-increasing expansion of the do-it-yourself market into fields previously reserved for craftsmen, a need has arisen for mitered moldings such as window or door trim which can be rapidly and accurately assembled by unskilled persons without the use of tools.
Typically, a craftsman would construct, e.g., a window trim by placing mitered pieces of trim against each other, aligning them correctly, and then nailing them together. Although maintaining the alignment while nailing was not difficult for a skilled professional, it was a troublesome and often unsuccessful undertaking for an unskilled householder.
It has previously been proposed to solve this problem by the use of a key in the form of, e.g., a bow tie or some other shape cooperating with recesses in the mitered parts in such a way as to prevent relative movement of the parts in either the longitudinal or transverse directions of the key once the key was in place. However, in order for the prior art key to be effective, it was necessary to assure a tight fit between the key and the recesses. This in turn required the key to be hammered into place--an operation which, in unskilled hands, was likely to damage the typically wooden trim.